Marriage (Before) Love
by rimshotstinger
Summary: Bridging the 5-year gap between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. See how eager new wife Chi-Chi and her clueless husband find out that sometimes, for better or worse, you fall in love after you get married.


As it had turned out, "marriage" had not been a delicious food, but a party _with_ delicious food. But other than the fact that he had to eat painfully slowly when in his weird formal clothes – careful not to get any food on them – Goku had only been able to pick up on two things: that after the party, he and Chi-Chi were expected to spend a lot of time together, and that he was going to have to get used to kisses, which he was apparently supposed to give back, though thus far he'd only gotten them. Bulma seemed to think it was very important to kiss each other when the official said you were married, but they hadn't done that. Goku assumed it was because Chi-Chi didn't want him messing it up, as he hadn't gotten in any practice.

However, the party seemed to have gone well anyway, kiss or not. Everyone looked like they were having fun, and Roshi was able to chat up a lot of girls in pretty dresses. But when the festivities wound down and it was apparently time to leave, everyone got weird on Goku. Kuririn, Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, Roshi – they got really sheepish like they were all sharing some sort of funny secret that involved Goku, but which he wasn't in on. The guys kept nudging him with their elbows and wishing him luck, Bulma just blushed. It was weird because the party was over and Goku had already succeeded in keeping his tuxedo pristine – he didn't need luck anymore.

Giving directions from the back of Kinto-un, Chi-Chi led them through the dying light of dusk until they reached a house near Mount Paozu, mere metres away from Grandpa Gohan's hut. She said her father had it built just for them. It consisted of three structures in all: two similar yet differently-sized ones with pitched tile roofs that connected at a right angle, and a dome-shaped kitchen nestled between them, connected to the larger main house via a walkway.

"We're sleeping here tonight?" asked Goku as he lifted his new wife gingerly from the floating golden cloud.

"We're gonna sleep here every night, Goku-_sa_," Chi-Chi clarified. The perplexed expression Goku adopted at her answer was mirrored a second later by his wife as her feet touched the ground.

"What's wrong?"

"Goku-_sa_, you're supposed to carry me inside," Chi-Chi replied, as if such a thing was obvious.

"Oh," was all Goku said before looping his hand behind his wife's legs and scooping her up to throw over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He hadn't managed to take a single step to turn toward the house when he felt the patter of his wife's fists against his back.

"Goku-_sa_!" Chi-Chi shrieked, sounding angry, "I'm not some fish you caught for supper! Carry me like a lady!"

What did _that _mean?

Goku set her down in front of him to put them back at square one. Her sour expression said he only had a split second to think about how she wanted to be caddied into the house. Goku knew of only two other ways you could carry someone, and he figured her dress was going to make it hard to piggy-back her. So, he decided to cradle her in his arms, which was apparently the right move, because the fierceness instantly melted from her face as she looped her arms around his neck.

Upon reaching the room they'd soon be sleeping in and setting Chi-Chi gently on the bed, Goku eagerly tried it for himself. Wow! He'd never felt a bed so soft in his entire life! Not even Kinto-un could compare!

"Goku-_sa_," Chi-Chi chimed in with a tone like someone about to tell him a secret, "you should change out of your tuxedo first."

"You're right," Goku agreed, then set to work. Chi-Chi volunteered to help slip the jacket off his arms after he'd tried removing it by pulling it over his head like any other shirt. Likely fearing for the well-being of the rest of the outfit, she immediately set herself on the buttons of his shirt, to save them a flight across the room if he tried to simply pull the front open haphazardly. Admittedly, she liked this part, helping him like this. His pure heart had won her love, but it also possessed an adorable naiveté which meant that, for the first time, Chi-Chi could take care of someone else rather than being doted on as a fragile princess in her father's castle.

She stopped once his shirt had been properly removed over his shoulders, and was folding it neatly when he piped up suddenly with, "Do you need a hand too?" while undoing his belt. When, startled, her shoulders jumped, beginning a tense silence which left his question unanswered, he pressed forward. "Your dress has a zipper at the back. Can you unzip it by yourself?"

Chi-Chi spun on her heel. Though she knew that, even if he saw her bright red face just then, the cause of it would probably be lost on him, she was still more than happy to hide it. After all, she shouldn't be so nervous, not on their _wedding night_.

Goku's wife shook her head in silence. "Okay," she heard him say in an innocently friendly tone behind her. Then she felt one of his strong hands cup her shoulder, and failed miserably suppressing a shiver. At that, she heard him chuckle from his nose – then he unzipped her.

Chi-Chi slapped the falling bodice against her body so quickly that she hurt her ribs. When Goku asked if she was okay, all she could do was fall into a crouch and ask, "Could you finish changing in the bathroom, please?" Of course, he did as she said without question, and for once she was thankful that he couldn't put together why she was so bashful...because she still couldn't either. She felt quite ashamed of herself as she hurriedly slipped into her white chemise with the lacey hem, then situated herself at the edge of the bed, facing the bathroom door with rapt anticipation.

But the longer she waited, the more worried she became, not for herself, but for Goku. He'd yet to so much as kiss her on the cheek. Was she seriously expecting what—well, what was naturally expected of newlyweds on their wedding night? She'd bet he had zero experience, just like her, but worse still, that she – this! – might catch him completely off-guard. What if he thought she was too forward? What if this was a _surprise_ he hadn't been expecting? Would he reject her?

...Would he be wrong to?

That question seemed to release back into her mind all the second-thoughts she'd giddily suppressed during the wedding...for her own sake. She'd been thinking about her happiness the entire time. The man had thought marriage was a food, for god's sake! Had she...had she really _tricked_ him into this, into everything marriage entailed? Sometimes he was still just like the boy she'd met all those years ago. Had she taken advantage of that?

Only seconds before, Chi-Chi would have never thought that she'd actually be _relieved_ to see Goku step out of the bathroom pulling tight the waist sash of his Kame School uniform. "Goku-_sa_..."

Noticing her surprise, but thankfully missing the way her eyes were glistening with new, unfallen tears of shame, Goku took on a sheepish look. "Ah, sorry, Chi-Chi. I guess you wanna sleep now. I'm not really tired yet, though. I thought I'd get in some training outside before I turn in. Is that okay?"

Chi-Chi nodded low so as to quickly wipe her tears away with the heel of her hand unnoticed. "Yeah, that's fine," she told him, still staring at her feet danging off the bedside. "I'll just take a shower. Make sure you clean up too after you're done," she told him as she met him at the bathroom's threshhold, but didn't meet his eyes.

"You bet. Thanks, Chi-Chi," he said with a pat on her shoulder, bouncing excitedly out of the room as if late for a party. Seeing that was enough to buckle Chi-Chi's knees, and she rested her forehead on the bathroom tile to sob quietly into the floor. _Look how excited he was just to train_, she tormented herself. _He barely even noticed _me_...And why would he? He has no idea what's supposed to happen between us! I can't...I can't..._

Chi-Chi's most hated thought went unfinished in her mind as she pushed herself up and slid her legs past the threshhold to press her knees to her chest, sitting under the bathroom sink. As her face dropped into her knees, she swatted the door closed and began to sob anew.

As Goku went through the motions of the Kame School _kata_, he wondered to himself why Chi-Chi seemed so off all of a sudden. He had the nagging suspicion that he'd missed something, or messed something up, despite his wife's best efforts. He guessed he'd just have to ask her what he did wrong when he finished outside.

Man, he loved training outside at night! _This _was definitely the most fun he'd had all day.

The air was so cool that it didn't matter how intensely he pumped his fists into the air, or how many acrobatics he did dodging attacks from imagined foes – yes, he still worked up a good sweat, but the night instantly cooled it against his skin. And to take a single deep breath of crisp, dewey evening air did so much more to rejuvinate you than did all the labored, hot, itchy gulps of air you could get down in the midday sun. Yes, he loved it, alright. So much, in fact, that an hour had soon passed him by without him taking much notice. By then, though, he'd managed to sufficiently tucker himself, and was ready to get back into that amazingly cushy new bed.

Goku was a bit surprised that, by the sound of it, Chi-Chi was still taking a shower. He told himself that girls probably just took longer showers than guys did. That was probably why Chi-Chi smelled so nice all the time. But what was he to do now? He _knew_ Chi-Chi wouldn't want him on the bed, drenched in sweat as he was...

Maybe it would be okay to wash up at the same time, then? Roshi had said a few weeks before the wedding that the husband got to see his wife naked after. Goku didn't really understand the exciting aspect of that. As a youngster, he'd seen enough of Bulma, and of the ladies in the weird magazines Kuririn always snuck away from their master, to know what a girl looked like without clothes on. It was very different from guys, but he didn't remember it being anything special. But he also remembered Chi-Chi telling him that a husband and wife shared everything, that they did everything together. It looked like she was already expecting them to share a bed together, since there was only the one. So, why not?

Goku announced himself – something his wife missed over the sound of rushing water – and entered, naked as the day he was born. He crouched before the wash station at the wall in between the sink and the bathtub, cranked on the hot water, and hosed himself down with the flexable shower head that sat above the faucets. He had just ducked to drench his unkempt mane when he heard a sound to his right – the curtain which had been obscuring Chi-Chi from his view, and he from hers, was pulled aside.

"_KYAAAAA!_"

Chi-Chi's wholly unexpected shriek was punctuated by the sound of Goku's forehead cracking against the bathroom tile – he'd slipped when her scream had rang out so suddenly. Through the pulsing pain that followed, Goku heard the abrupt sounds of the shower being turned off and the curtain being yanked back into place in front of his wife.

"G-G-Goku-_sa_! What are you _doing_?" he heard her shout. Had he startled her?

"Just cleaning up like you said. Sorry if I scared you," Goku replied innocently.

"Nevermind!" Chi-Chi cut in almost before Goku had finished, "Just dry off and get back in the bedroom!"

"Oh...okay," was the last thing she heard before turning the water back on. She had been just about finished, but now she was freezing again. Not to mention that the pounding of a thousand water drops on porcelain helped to drown out her heavy, panicked breathing. She'd finally managed to get herself back under control – he hadn't actually _seen _her naked, after all – when she stopped the torrent for a second time, wrapped herself in the towel that hung on the rod beside the bathtub, and pushed the curtain aside one more—

—to the sight of her naked husband, his thick mane of black sopping wet like the fur of a dog that had been in the rain.

She was sure he'd said something as she felt her towel fall around her ankles, but whatever it was, it was drowned out by the frantic screaming going on inside and outside her head.

Goku repeated himself. "Sorry Chi-Chi! I couldn't find where the towels are!" he said frantically, but only because she was frantic. Not that he knew why.

Nor could Goku figure out why his wife had pushed him right out of the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him and leaving him to drip on the bedroom floor. Luckily for him, a moment later he was hit in the back of the head by a fresh, white towel. Once he'd finished drying off with it and had wrapped it securely about his waist, he rapped lightly on the bathroom door. "Chi-Chi? Are you okay?"

"No I'm not!" came his wife's tense voice from beyond the door. Was she...crying? Had he misunderstood something else?

"It's okay, Chi-Chi, I don't care that I saw you naked."

The long, deafening silence that followed his apology told him that he'd somehow managed to botch that, too.

It was a long time before Chi-Chi finally exited the bathroom and found, to her surprise, Goku sitting at the edge of the bed, waiting just as she had done for him before. He was already in his undershirt and boxer shorts, and she had honestly assumed that he'd be asleep by the time she came out.

Before Chi-Chi could speak, Goku beat her to it. "I don't think I'm very good at being married, Chi-Chi." There was shame in his voice, something she'd never heard there. It was enough to nearly make Chi-Chi start crying again.

"It's okay," she said instead as she glided over to sit beside him and place a hand tenderly on his hard-as-concrete back, "it takes time for everyone. I'm sorry too, Goku-_sa_."

"Is there something I didn't do? I don't really get what's supposed to happen now," he said, utterly bewildered.

Chi-Chi knew he'd likely meant "what's supposed to happen now that we're married", but couldn't stop her mind from racing to what was actually supposed to happen right _now_. Maybe if she took her time and explained it to him, they'd both end up enjoying themselves. And maybe then he'd _want_ to be her husband. Her mind had nearly figured out what to say and how to say it, when her mouth cut it to the quick.

"Now," she told her husband, "you get some sleep. Then tomorrow you can start training again."

"But...aren't we supposed to do everything together?"

"I'm your wife, Goku-_sa_, so that means that I'm gonna support you. I'll make sure there's always food for you after you're done training, and when you're finished, you can sleep in here with me. I bet this bed is a lot better than the one in your old house, right?"

"Uh...yeah. Gee, Chi-Chi, marriage is a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be," said Goku, smiling and sounding relieved. He'd had a housemate before in Kuririn while training with Roshi, and now, that's what Chi-Chi had decided they were better off being. She knew now that Goku didn't really love her – she doubted if he even understood what that was. But she loved him, and so she would support him without pushing the expectations and responsibilities of marriage on him. He'd get to continue training, while she could live in freedom from the claustrophobic walls of her father's castle. And that was the as far as it went.

After that, they each got under the blankets of their new bed and situated themselves back-to-back, Chi-Chi out of shame, Goku out of ignorance. Maybe an hour had ticked by in the silent dark by the time Chi-Chi heard Goku whisper beside her, surprising her, as she thought he'd sacked out a while before.

"It's so much warmer sleeping in a bed together, Chi-Chi," he whispered. "I like this."

And as Chi-Chi closed her eyes with a smile, she felt a tear roll down her cheek.


End file.
